Steven Garofalo
Spirituality/Belief • Education • News
“WHEN GOD LEAVES US TO OUR OWN DEVISE”
By Steven Garofalo, January 19, 2024 (Copyright 2024)
January 19, 2024

There are two categories of people in the world: Those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and those who don’t. Believing that Jesus existed and is God falls in the latter. What both groups have in common is the propensity or tendency to stray from God’s ways, laws and moral code. 

Today, I am going to show you the consequences or what can happen when a godly person (an authentic Christian) continually disobeys God and sins perpetually, leaning on God’s grace, but ignoring His justice. Let’s get started.

Living absent of repentant sin affects our physical, emotional and spiritual health. Sin affects our relationship with God, turning the love that belongs to Him alone and pointing it inward toward ourselves. When we reject God in favor of anything else, it becomes sin. But, the ultimate consequence of sin is an ultimate rejection of and rebellion against God. And this can lead to death. What do I mean by that? If a saved Christian is a perpetual drug user, that is sin and that sin can eventually cause them to overdose. That’s a fairly clear cut example of sin leading to death. But what about those who are saved but refuse to totally submit to life dedicated to seeking God’s ways? 

That’s what I want to look at today through the eyes of 1 Samual chapter 28. Here, we learn about the rebellious life of king Saul who was put into the office of king over Israel against God’s counsel by request of the Jewish people. Leading up to Samuel 28, Samuel failed to listen to God’s instructions through the prophet Samual-ultimately doing what he wanted to do over above God’s way. By the time we get to 1 Samual 28, we find Saul repeatedly trying to murder David out of jealousy, selfish ambition. As we read through today’s entry, I want you to think about how you might do the very same thing to varying degrees from time to time in your own life.

Picking up 1 Samual 28, we find a king Saul who is out of options and in a dangerous predicament in light of the Philistines coming out to war against he and Israel. In verses 4-5 we find Saul in a panic because the Philistines were poised at SHUNEM (Seven miles East of Megiddo which is the location of the final battle at Armageddon). The Philistines were at that location, ready to battle the Israelites in the plain of Jezreel with highly sophisticated weapons that would be used to crush the Israelites. And this understandably terrorized Saul. Let’s pick up the passage in 1 Samuel 28:5 which says this: 

“When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urin, or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, “”Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” (1 Samuel 28:5-7a). 

SO WHAT’S GOING ON HERE: What had happened is that God had left king Saul to his own devises because Saul was repeatedly rebellious against and disobedient to the Lord. Saul did what he pleased. Instead of waiting on the Lord when Samuel the prophet asked him simply to wait. Furthermore, Saul attempted repeatedly to murder David out of his egotistical-jealousy and lust for power. As a result, the Lord left Saul to his own devices, meaning that Saul was left with only his human assets but void of God’s favor, blessing, protection and power to make him victorious. Instead, Saul had more faith in his army and role as king to protect the people of Israel than God himself. But verse 5 tells us this: “When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul INQUIRED OF THE LORD THE LORD DID NOT ANSWER HIM, EITHER BY DREAMS, OR BY URIM OR BY PROPHETS”.

What had happened is that the Lord departed from Saul and left him to his own devices. Fast forwarding to verses 15-16, we find a very desperate Saul dressing in disguise to meet with a “spiritual medium” (which he had deemed illegal) in an effort to raise up the prophet Samuel up from the dead to help him discern or gain God’s direction and favor. It’s impossible for medium or any person raise a person who has dies and passed on. This case was a miracle allowed by God, who on this particular occasion permitted the actual spirit of Samuel to speak and announce Saul’s imminent death (v.19). In other words, Saul was so far out of God’s will that God handed him over to his own devices-finally telling Saul what was going to happen to he and his son Jonathan the very next day by miraculously allowing the one and only person (the deceased Prophet Samual) who Saul would believe tell him point blank what he came to find out. And the news was very bad for Saul. As an FYI, the medium’s cry of astonishment shows that this appearance was not the result of the medium’s usually tricks but authentic. 

Samuel spiritually comes back from the world of the dead: “And Samuel said, “”Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy…” (vs16-17). Verse 18 picks us with Samuel telling Saul, 

“Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce warpath against Amalek (Exodus 17:8; 1 Sam. 30:1) therefore, the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hands of the Philistines” (vss.18-19).

The central point is that Saul was so disobedient and defiant of the Lord that he brought God’s judgment on himself, his military and the Israelites, that the Lord literally turned from Saul and become an enemy of he and Israelites! Moreover, the Lord point blanc told Saul through Samuel that the game of defiance was over, and he would give Saul and his three sons; including his son Jonathan who David loved and the Israelites into the hands of the Israelites the very next day.

The point is that when we defy God, He leaves us to our own devices. We tend to think of God’s judgement as fire, pain and proactive punishment. But God’s punishment and judgement more often than not come in the form of His withdrawing His hand of blessing, power, protection and victory-even in times of war. Verse 5 makes clear that the consequence of Saul’s leaving God-God in turn left Saul on his own and to his own devices. Saul was so afraid of the forthcoming battle that his “heart trembled greatly”. 

Sauls persistent disobedience had left him completely without confidence in God’s presence, protection in his life and role as king. And in verse 6, in the midst of his fear and anxiety, Saul “Inquired of the Lord”, but there was none that came.” 

What had happened is that Saul became so depraved and desperate that he ended up going to see a medium in an effort to by-pass God and to seek out Samuel from the dead to help him discern God’s direction. Saul was understandably terrified and sought God’s mind for counsel about the impending battle with the Philistines. To Saul’s credit, he first sought God’s counsel through several valid means of communication, including by way of DREAMS, URIM, and PROPHETS. But the Lord did not speak to Saul through any of those means because God had already departed from Saul. Saul forgot the simple truth that the battle and victory are in the hands of the Lord and not himself.  2 Chronicles 20:15 says:

“And he said, “”Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's.”” (2 Chronicles 20:15)

This is where society, and many authentic Christians are at today. They have so departed from God that they can’t find the door to get them out of the lost-dark culture and into the light of God. Much of the world and church have forgotten that the battle is the Lords and that: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

IN CLOSING
It’s important for us to remember that both Saul and his son Jonathan were both was saved and going to Heaven. Verses 18-19 says, “…tomorrow you and your sons shall be with Me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hands of the Philistines” (vss.18-19). This clearly shows us that even those who are saved-while they can’t loose their salvation, can loose the blessings, protection and victory of the Lord in their life. As a result, the battles in their own life and life mission become lost; defeated by an evil world. Why? Because sometimes, even Christians defy God, become depraved. And as a result God leaves them to their own devices.

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By Del Potter, M.A.A. (Copyright 2025)

Not Serpents of Skin, but From The Falsehood Of Sin: Uncoiling The Ending of Mark’s Gospel

By Del Potter, M.A.A. August 27, 2025

Opening Remarks

From the outset, this article is NOT contending whether or not the ending of Mark 16 should be included. Although, it is in my humble opinion that some of the strange language in the ending of Mark actually affirms the truthfulness of the events inserted into the ending of Mark. There are several striking words in Mark's longer ending (Mark 16:17–18):

“These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them...”

As a first impression, the imagery suggests a miraculous ability to resist snakes and poison. It is nevertheless important to note that serpents and poison consistently function within Jewish, Biblical, and early Christian thought as symbols of false teaching and spiritual corruption, not simply physical danger.


Serpents in Scripture: Symbols of Deception

From the beginning of Genesis through Revelation, the serpent is never merely zoological—it is the archetype of deceit. In Genesis 3, the serpent slithers into the Garden not to bite with fangs, but to inject Eve with poisonous doubt about God’s word. Later Jewish wisdom literature follows this thread:

  • Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 21:2: “Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent: for if thou comest too near it, it will bite thee.”
  • Psalm 140:3: “They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers.”

This same imagery flows into the New Testament:

  • Matthew 23:33: Jesus calls the Pharisees a “brood of vipers,” not because of biology, but because of false teaching.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:3: Paul warns that, just as the serpent deceived Eve, so false teachers corrupt the simplicity of Christ.
  • Revelation 12:9: John describes Satan as a serpent “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Therefore, when Mark refers to "serpents" and "deadly poison," his Jewish-Christian readers would have recognized the metaphor: heresy slithering into the church among the people with its false doctrine poisoning the entire church (2 Peter 2:1).


The Poison Of Heresy: A Dangerous Drink

The early Church frequently described heretical teaching as venom or poison. Ignatius of Antioch warned the Trallians:

“I therefore, yet not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, entreat you that ye use Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a different kind; I mean heresy. For those [that are given to this] mix up Jesus Christ with their own poison, speaking things which are unworthy of credit, like those who administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, which he who is ignorant of does greedily take, with a fatal pleasure leading to his own death.” (Letter to the Trallians 107 A.D.).

This language reflects the very pattern of Mark 16—poisonous teaching disguised as nourishment. The faithful, however, are promised preservation: “it will not harm them.” The believer, rooted in Christ, can discern and resist corruption.

No early Christian expressed this more vividly than Tertullian of Carthage (c. 200 AD). In his treatise Scorpiace, he likens heresy to venomous creatures:

  • Heresy “creeps into the church like a scorpion,” injecting spiritual poison.
  • The faithful must resist with the antidote of Scripture, wielded like the staff of Moses against the serpents of Egypt.

Tertullian believed that the danger was not from reptiles in the marketplace, but rather from false teachers within the church. Similarly, heresy pierces the souls of believers in a quiet and lethal manner, just as the scorpion stings unseen. As a result, he viewed Christ's promise in Mark not as a test of reckless physical stunts, but as a promise that the faithful will not suffer from the venom of falsehood if armed with the truth. As Paul rightly reminds his audience:

 "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil (i.e. snakes & poisons)." - Ephesians 6:11


Mark’s Ending and the beginning of the Early Church

NT writers wrote within a culture steeped in metaphor. The early church never staged snake-handling rituals to “prove” faith. Instead, they testified by enduring persecution, refuting heresy, and preserving sound doctrine.

The apologetic force of Mark 16 is not spectacle—it is survival. The church would face vipers in pulpits, scorpions in councils, and poison in doctrine. Yet Christ promises: “These things will not harm you.”

Just as in the first century, serpents and scorpions creep into the church today—not in the form of reptiles, but in the form of false witnesses, compromised truth, and distorted gospels. The call of Mark 16 is not to chase miracles, but to guard against lies.

In a world full of theological poison, the believer’s protection is not daredevil faith, but faithful discernment: Scripture, the Spirit, and the witness of the saints.

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers [i.e. snakes] among you, who will secretly introduce destructive [i.e. poison] heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” - 2 Peter 2:1


Closing Remarks

The ending of Mark’s Gospel, far from a literal dare, is a prophetic warning and promise:

  • Serpents = false teachers.
  • Poison = heretical doctrines.
  • The promise = Christ’s people, if grounded in truth, will not be overcome.

Tertullian’s scorpions, Ignatius’ poison, Paul’s vipers, and Jesus’ own words unite: the greatest danger to the church is not fangs and venom in the field, but lies and venom in the pulpit.

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MAN'S PROBLEM-"HIDDENESS"
By Del Potter, M.A.A., August 16, 2025

The Problem Is With Man's Hiddenness Toward God, Not Vice-Versa

Why Doesn’t God Make His Existence Unmistakably Clear to Everyone?

One of the most common objections to faith is: “If God is real, why doesn’t He just show Himself beyond all doubt?” Skeptics ask why God doesn’t write His name in the sky or make His presence undeniable. But Scripture, reason, and the earliest witnesses of the Church tell us a different story: God has already made Himself known, yet it is humanity that hides.

God’s Self-Revelation in Creation

Scripture consistently teaches that God’s fingerprints are everywhere. The Apostle Paul writes:

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

Psalm 19:1 echoes this truth: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

Job reminds us that creation itself—beasts, birds, earth, and sea—all testify to the Creator:

“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” (Job 12:7–10)

God’s existence, then, is not hidden. It is written into the very structure of reality. As St. Athanasius later argued, creation itself acts as a universal witness, speaking of God’s power to every culture and language without need for words.

Why Does God Seem Hidden?

The real issue is not divine silence but human resistance. Moses records God saying:

“I will surely hide My face in that day, because of all the evil which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.” (Deuteronomy 31:18)

This is not a statement about God being unknowable but about mankind turning its back to Him. God’s “hiddenness” is a moral and relational reality, not an intellectual one. As Isaiah wrote:

“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.” (Isa. 59:2)

Early Christians echoed this. Justin Martyr argued that those who live according to reason (logos) recognize the true God through creation and conscience. Clement of Alexandria explained that ignorance of God is not due to His absence, but due to the blindness of the soul enslaved to passions.

The Attributes of God are Revealed According To His Nature.

If God were to force belief by overwhelming proof, He would violate the very nature of faith and love. Love cannot be compelled; it requires freedom. Blaise Pascal later captured this well: “There is enough light for those who desire to see, and enough darkness for those who do not.”

The early Church understood that God provides evidence sufficient for faith, but not coercion. Origen taught that God “gives signs to those who are willing to see, but hides from those who shut their eyes.” This allows space for genuine seeking, humility, and love—rather than forced acknowledgment.

God Is Not Hidden—We Are

When people ask, “Why doesn’t God make Himself clear?” the biblical answer is: He already has. The problem is not with God’s silence but with our ears. The witness of creation, conscience, Scripture, and Christ Himself leaves us without excuse.

It is not God who hides, but man who hides from God—just as Adam and Eve once hid in the Garden. And yet, even then, God sought them, calling out: “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9).

The same God still calls today through the beauty of creation, the testimony of Scripture, and the living Christ. The question is not whether God is clear enough but whether we are willing to see Him more clearly!

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:12

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INFALLIBILITY IS GREATER THAN INERRANCY
By Del Potter M.A.A.
 
God's truth (Infallibility) is greater than man's inability to write down or transmit His word (Inerrancy) perfectly. God's truth remains true regardless if man regards or disregards it to be true.
 
Allow me to explain more in-depth. Inerrancy, is defined as the belief that Scripture contains no errors in its original manuscripts, so obviously inerrancy struggles with textual variants like John 8:1–11. The story is missing from the oldest Greek manuscripts (e.g., Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) and its stylistic differences raise red flags for many textual critics. But if our faith rests solely on inerrant transmission, what happens when that transmission wavers? Are such passages now less inspired? We are warned from scripture itself that errant transmission could and can occur. God through Moses warns the Israelites that "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I am commanding you" (Deuteronomy 4:2).
 
Jesus seems to place an exclamation point on this line of thinking and says “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15) clarifying further that if you love God you will not tamper with His word. God places a capstone on this discussion by warning His readers at the close of Revelation "and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book" (22:19). My point? We are warned through scripture itself there is and would be a problem with those that would add or even take away from God's infallible word thus making it errant and not inerrant. This is where the strength of infallibility steps in.
 
Infallible simply means “incapable of error.” The difference is God is incapable of error and is against His nature to error. "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless" (Psalm 18:30:). Inerrancy is like a flawless earthly mirror. Crack it, and it’s compromised. However, Infallibility is like the sun: Even if seen through a foggy lens, it still gives light and heat because its origin is not of the earth.
 
Psalm 119:89 reminds us that truth originates not in human manuscripts, but in the eternal counsel of God. Combined with John 21:25 - "Jesus did many other things... if all of them had been written down, the world itself would be unable to contain the volumes" We are confronted with a key theological insight: not all truth has been written, but all truth is known. In Scripture, it is clarified that omission from man's history does not imply absence from God's history. So, even when the earthly record is incomplete, the heavenly record has been completed.
 
Again, it is true that manuscripts such as Codex Sinaiticus omit stories like the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53–8:11), leading some to question its authenticity. Yet, early Christians like Didymus the Blind (pre-Nicene era) affirmed the passage’s existence in "certain Gospels." Augustine later wrote that some scribes intentionally excluded the story out of fear it could be misused to justify sin using the story of the Pericope Adulterae.
 
“Certain persons of little faith... removed from their manuscripts the Lord's act of forgiveness toward the adulteress.” (Augustine 'De Adulterinis Coniugiis' - 419 A.D.)
 
This demonstrates that the story may have been removed due to fear, politics, or human discretion, but not by divine silence. In light of Psalm 119:89, we must remember that God's word is "SETTLED" [Greek: Natsab = stationed/established] in heaven before it’s written on earth.
 
This challenges an empirical view of truth. If divine revelation is only accepted when it aligns with surviving manuscripts, the church’s oral tradition, apostolic memory, and lived theology are undermined. The early church did not rely solely on manuscripts, but on witnesses, oral, and Spirit-led preservation. As Tertullian wrote in the 2nd century:
 
“We do not need curiosity after Christ Jesus, nor inquiry after the gospel. When we believe, we desire to believe nothing more. For this we believe, that there is nothing else which we ought to believe.” - Prescription Against Heretics, Ch. 7–8.
 
Scripture acknowledges its own incompleteness—yet affirms the completeness of God's eternal counsel.
 
The failure to accept any truth that has not been recorded in early papyri amounts to ignoring the 'heavenly library' where truth is established. There is a consensus among Scripture, tradition, and theology that the absence of paper does not imply the absence of preservation. Despite the fact that earth has not penned it, that does not mean heaven has not done so. As Christians, we believe that the eternal Word, who is Jesus Christ, the Logos (John 1:1-14), has embodied and preserved all truth, some written, some spoken, and some remembered in the heart of the Church. The Word of God cannot fail - even if manuscripts do. That is the beauty and greatness of infallibility over inerrancy.
 
"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25).
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